Sleep update
Thank you everyone for some great ideas on getting a better night sleep. In general, things have been slightly improved but I still go through a restless period each night. I thought people would get a laugh out of the accompanying graph from last night. (Gweipo, please note the time I went to bed!) Quite a roller coaster ride. I don't remember much of this ride except I do remember waking up in the morning and not feeling so rested. The kids were also early risers this morning, which surprised me. The girls were tired out from a Saturday night sleep over. All the kids had quite an active day on Sunday, too with early morning rugby training for the boys. I was certain would give the kids a little extra sleep this morning. They were quiet, but they were not sleeping!
Lovely Tess suggested I show everyone what her sleep cycle looks like. I forgot to get a copy off her iPhone. However, I found a diagram of a reef dropping off into the ocean that looks the same as Tess' sleep patterns. Starts with Tess reading a book, which is code for circling the airport or entering into the sleep zone: not to be disturbed. After reading for a while Tess will get sleepy, but then suddenly awaken enough to discard her book and turn off the light. Sometimes, often, this task will be left to me – I will turn off the light for Tess and move dropped book off of the bed because, Tess has already dropped off into an ocean of sleep looking like an angel bathed in white light. Tess needs no beauty sleep.
Mini-rugby has begun!
The Hong Kong mini-rugby season is upon us. Today was our first day of practice after missing last week. We are doing Sunday practice after merging the Saturday satellite group I was coaching into the regular Sunday group. This requires Seb starting Sundays at 9:30 AM. And that means Jasper wants to play Sunday morning, too – an 8 AM start. (One of Sebastian's beefs is when Jasper copies him, but Seb has yet to figure out that this is actually happening with rugby on Sunday mornings!) This also makes for a long Sunday but that's okay. The boys are happy and enjoying the sport.
We dealt with a mountain of indecision leading up to the season start. First they – including the girls – wanted to play, then they didn't want to play, then they did, then they didn't, did, didn't, did, didn't, did, didn't, did. Oh my gosh this drove me nuts. Then today while playing Rugby Basketball I tossed the ball into the group and it immediately bounced up into Seb's stomach and winded him. This didn't help. But we're here, and we've started and are on our way into the season. Hong Kong-based Canadians friends are not impressed, arguing that the kids should be playing ice hockey. (Which, believe it or not IS offered in Hong Kong.) Prayers appreciated!
A Special Moment
On Saturday morning I attended a prayer meeting at Union Church – a long but truly worthwhile session. The point of this story is not to share about the prayer meeting, but about what happened beforehand. Recently the church sanctuary received its annual touch-up, re-paint, new TV screens. Turns out there is a small window hidden at the very front of the sanctuary. I am not sure but I suspect an opaque curtain has covered it for years. The curtain allows a little light in but nothing striking. During the touch-up someone drew back the curtain. Net result… I was one of the first to arrive at the church early Saturday morning. Venturing into the sanctuary I discovered an intensity I’d never before seen on the Bible near the front. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Alone, I moved forward, curious and mesmerised, until face to face with the Bible. Beaming down was an intense sunlight illuminating The Book in a way I could never describe appropriately.
Suddenly from behind, and above, came a voice, “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Chris Yorks, our Music Director, who I think discovered the perpetrating curtain, had watched me from the sanctuary balcony. We marvelled at the scene and the fact that long ago – really long ago – someone put a window in that exact spot to capture the sun on the Bible each morning. (When I returned later to capture a picture the sun had moved but I think you'll still get the idea.)
For insomnia: move to the edge of the bed and you’ll soon drop off
Tess might be dreaming of divorce but I am not dreaming at all because I am not sleeping. The attached chart(s) shows a typical night’s sleep for me, as illustrated/tracked by Sleep Cycle on my iPhone. For some strange reason, since moving into our new flat, I have not been able to sleep. This has been going on for a few months now so needless to say I am getting pretty tired. A typical night I fall asleep rather quickly, only to wake-up about 90 minutes later. I will be restless for about an hour, fall asleep, and then awaken a while later for another hour of restlessness. Net effect: 4 hours and 21 minutes of sleep.
During the last few months I have cutback on coffee, since my new employer actually doesn’t provide coffee at head office. Therefore, I have a cup in the morning, finished on the way to work, a cup mid-morning from Pacific Coffee Company and maybe another cup at lunch or early afternoon. Typically I don’t drink coffee after 2 PM. (My previous employer had an awesome coffee machine and it was a real challenge staying away from it!) I have also lost about 4 – 5 kgs during the summer, started exercising again and cut out soft drinks. Since July 23rd I have had less than one can of Orange Fanta and only a few sips of Coke. I am also eating healthier – in the morning I have cut sugar out of my cereal, instead adding yoghurt. I am making a conscious effort to eat less junk, buying fresh fruit from a terrific fruit stand near work. Finally, I have cut back on lunch: I now eat half a sandwich instead of a whole sandwich, supplementing lunch with a salad of some sort and fruit. I am still not sleeping very well.
Yes, I saw a doctor and he said to me, “Anything I prescribe, you will only get addicted to.” I have talked with friends about the East/West and North/South theory. I have tried running and exercising at night. I have eaten many bananas at night (they contain melatonin, in case you didn’t know) only resulting in more hair on the back of my neck and hands: I am still very, very restless each night.
Some people say that God wakes you to pray for people. I tried praying and that helped quite a bit. But finally last night I was so fed-up that I got up at 4:45 AM and stayed awake. This is my new strategy and I will let you know how it goes. Tonight if I wake-up… I am just going to get up.
Meanwhile, any suggestions?
Is shopping bad for Jasper’s health?
Moving flats revealed a boat load of unused gift certificates (GCs) collected over the last two to three years. Of late these vouchers have made their way into a little cash box that the kids refer to as "The Bank of Dad" or "Dad's Bank." (Sorry Dad and Blake, looks like there's a new institution on the block but I doubt you'll complain and I am sure at some point it will need underwriters.)
Inside this box we keep the kids' Octopus cards, tooth fairy money and gift certificates. Tess and my track record of using coupons isn't great. It's the expiry date that we hate. We like saving money and like to tuck the gift certificates away for future use. However, that's problematic. Long ago, the year the triplets were born, I gave Tess a huge spa treatment (read HK$3,000) for Mother's Day, good for three months. The expiry came and went. I convinced the spa place to extend the expiry by a month. Tess went in two weeks later and they'd gone out of business. The same year we received a bunch of gift certificates to Toys R Us. We missed the expiry date again but managed to convince Toys R Us to honour them shortly after the expiry.
Good thing then, that we moved. We found almost HK$1,000 in Dymocks Bookstore gift certificates and over $2,500 in H&M. You might wonder where all of these come from… think of four kids, two years, fifteen people/party and the math is 4 X 2 X 15 = 90 kids. Many of these kids generously give gift certificates as presents. I checked all the coupons I could online to figure out their status then marched out with the triplets on a major shopping spree. (This was actually all a ploy to get the triplets out of the house so Seb could watch Harry Potter 3 with Tess and a friend now that Seb's read the third HP book.) Just as we left I asked Tess, "Are you sure you trust me to buy $2,500 in colour coordinated clothes for the girls?" Tess had a very politically correct answer.
Upon arriving at H&M, we agreed the girls would shop first. Most of the GCs were for the girls so they had the bulk of the shop to complete. This drove Jasper crazy. Personally, I am not a shopper and hate lounging. In fact, medical studies prove shopping is bad for men. I felt for Jasper as he waited and waited and waited for the girls to make decisions about what clothes they wanted. But at least I knew Jasper was too young to have a heart attack. At one point I even said, "Get used to it Jasper. Shopping is something girls love to do and it's part of your future landscape, my friend."
Finally it was JJ's turn to buy clothes. Short process. Jasper did decide, though, that he wanted a cool new check look, pictured above. We ended up using all the GCs then had a lovely lunch at the Spaghetti House.
Next was Dymocks where some of the GCs had expired. There was NO fuss from Dymocks who still honoured the GCs. Jasper picked some books in a few minutes, the girls took forever. Argh! Last we visited Clinique where I bought a new cologne JJ and I discovered a few weeks ago: Happy for Men. (The day we found it, Jasper who was in a very grumpy mood, said after having a bit sprayed on him: "I know why you want me to have this, because it will make me happy!" Tess says Happy suits me. This is a milestone as most of the time we don't agree on cologne tastes except the three that I already have and she LOVES. (Now you're thinking to yourselves, "Charles, you're not making sense.") The Clinique staff gave the triplets a few samples. This made JJ's day because he lost the sample given to him from a few weeks ago. Overall we had a great afternoon and Tess gave me a "pass" on most of the items we bought.
Thank you to everyone who gave us gift certificates during the last few years. I assure you they were put to very good use, even the ones that might have slipped by the expiry thanks to the kind staff at Dymocks!
I am sure Carys is sorry…
Another Mean Daddy Award handed out today. Tess was taking a much-deserved nap and Sebastian was determined to make his debut into filmmaking. The kids and I planned on sneaking out to work on Sebastian’s project. (We have finished production and I now have the task of editing the video!) The boys’ room tidy, swimming suits packed for our final destination (the ABC for a swim and dinner) but the girls weren’t quite ready. Boys headed downstairs to play. I was trying to get the girls ready and asked them to clean up their room. Carys was walking around with a skipping rope. I asked her once to please put it away. She didn’t. Asked her a second time to please put it away. She didn’t. Asked her a third time to please put it away. She didn’t. After the third time I asked, I heard a yelp from the girls’ room followed by Sela howling. Upon investigation, I discovered Carys had smacked Sela with one of the handles at end of the skipping rope. By this point Carys was in tears. I was truly frustrated by this point and dangled dessert. I sat down with Carys explaining that she had to get a handle on her wicked side. I asked her if she knew what I was talking about and she nodded wildly in agreement. I explained that she'd lost the privilege of dessert for the day. Carys put the skipping rope away. The girls finished tidying their room and Sela presented me with the above note. "Thank you, Sela, that is very kind of you," I replied, "and I am sure Carys is sorry, too."
Carys continued to cry for the next 10 – 15 minutes, including while we drove to the production site. Early on Sebastian asked what was wrong and Carys retorted, “NONE of your business.” When it came time for dessert all the kids had icelollies there was not a peep out of Carys. No tears, no complaining.
What do you think? Was I too mean? Would you have handled it differently?
